---
title: "Optician, Dispensing"
description: "Design, measure, fit, and adapt lenses and frames for client according to written optical prescription or specification. Assist client with inserting…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/optician-dispensing"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Optician, Dispensing

**Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-2081 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-2081.00

Design, measure, fit, and adapt lenses and frames for client according to written optical prescription or specification. Assist client with inserting, removing, and caring for contact lenses. Assist client with selecting frames. Measure customer for size of eyeglasses and coordinate frames with facial and eye measurements and optical prescription. Prepare work order for optical laboratory containing instructions for grinding and mounting lenses in frames. Verify exactness of finished lens spectacles. Adjust frame and lens position to fit client. May shape or reshape frames. Includes contact lens opticians.

Also advertised as: Certified Optician; Contact Lens Technician; Dispensing Optician; Licensed Dispensing Optician (LDO); Licensed Optician; Ophthalmic Dispenser; Optical Technician; Optician.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $47,260 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $22.72/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $35,610 to $76,750, with the middle half between $38,820 and $61,700
- **Total US employment:** 73,530
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +4.2% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 5,600 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 50/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 73,530 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $35,610 |
| 25th | $38,820 |
| 50th (median) | $47,260 |
| 75th | $61,700 |
| 90th | $76,750 |
| Mean (average) | $51,770 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CT | $75,300 | $72,676 | 610 |
| HI | $75,300 | $68,485 | 110 |
| NJ | $72,460 | $66,596 | 2,010 |
| MA | $67,210 | $63,551 | 1,360 |
| NY | $63,880 | $59,191 | 3,520 |
| DC | $61,310 | $55,787 | 80 |
| FL | $58,850 | $56,907 | 5,080 |
| AK | $58,250 | $56,908 | 90 |
| CA | $57,990 | $52,375 | 7,840 |
| VT | $57,350 | $58,545 | 70 |
| VA | $55,820 | $55,210 | 1,860 |
| NH | $51,980 | $49,902 | 440 |
| OH | $50,500 | $54,433 | 2,960 |
| NC | $50,190 | $53,209 | 2,020 |
| TN | $49,840 | $54,251 | 1,530 |

37 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 52 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/optician-dispensing/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/optician-dispensing.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 74,300 in the 2025–2035 base year to 77,400 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 3,100 jobs, or +4.2%. About as fast as average: 4.2% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 5,600 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Long-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 45.8% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 25.0% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 25.0% |
| Some College Courses | 4.2% |

## What the work involves

- Measure clients' bridge and eye size, temple length, vertex distance, pupillary distance, and optical centers of eyes, using measuring devices.
- Verify that finished lenses are ground to specifications.
- Recommend specific lenses, lens coatings, and frames to suit client needs.
- Assist clients in selecting frames according to style and color, and ensure that frames are coordinated with facial and eye measurements and optical prescriptions.
- Heat, shape, or bend plastic or metal frames to adjust eyeglasses to fit clients, using pliers and hands.
- Determine clients' current lens prescriptions, when necessary, using lensometers or lens analyzers and clients' eyeglasses.
- Prepare work orders and instructions for grinding lenses and fabricating eyeglasses.
- Obtain a customer's previous record, or verify a prescription with the examining optometrist or ophthalmologist.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Service Orientation — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Conventional (C), Realistic (R), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 5.43 |
| R — Realistic | 4.35 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.33 |
| S — Social | 3.05 |
| I — Investigative | 2.28 |
| A — Artistic | 1.41 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESTJ | 86.5 |
| ISTJ | 84.7 |
| ISFJ | 83.8 |
| ESFJ | 76.9 |
| ESTP | 58.6 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ, ISTJ, ISFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Ophthalmic Laboratory Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/ophthalmic-laboratory-technician) — median $39,460
- [Optometrist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/optometrist) — median $136,570
- [Ophthalmic Medical Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/ophthalmic-medical-technician) — median $45,570
- [Ophthalmic Medical Technologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/ophthalmic-medical-technologist) — median $50,290
- [Endoscopy Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/endoscopy-technician) — median $48,430
- [Medical Equipment Preparer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-equipment-preparer) — median $47,700
- [Pharmacy Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pharmacy-technician) — median $45,750
- [Pharmacy Aide](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pharmacy-aide) — median $37,680
- [Medical Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/medical-assistant) — median $45,690
- [Hearing Aid Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hearing-aid-specialist) — median $65,160

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/optician-dispensing